Saturday, November 21, 2009

blue skies and bondo

well it's been a while... i've been busy with lots of things not made of wood. we got the house insulated, worked on some drainage around the foundation, taking a tax preparation course, moved some machines into the basement...

ahh, machines. the first one to come in was the poitras 4800. i took most of it apart to move it, and it went pretty well. the tables came off of the main casting, the main casting came off of the base, and then two people can move it. not too bad. spent a couple of days putting it back together, i put the five horse motor that i got with the bandsaw into this guy. i still need to mount the electrical guts to it, and wire the shop for 220V. this thing is heavy, about a 1000 pounds. got the knives sharpened, but i'm holding off putting them back in until it's not going to move anymore.


next was the rest of the gear. i went to my folks place for a weekend and spent it packing. it's amazing how much stuff i've accumulated over the years. it's all in the basement now, thanks in large part to kevin, claire's brother, who cringes every time i ask him if he's busy.

thankfully there's a door leading to the top of the basement stairs from outside. we hauled the saw out of the van and then walked it down the stairs. it went surprisingly smoothly. one step at a time.


then i decided to paint it. it got scuffed during it's voyage, and the green with red wheels had kind of a christmas thing going on, so paint and bondo and more bondo. i decided to paint it blue, with dark blue wheels. i put the first coat of paint on the small parts, and just put the last layer of bondo on the main casting. the bearing still needs to be poured, but i've got all the necessary bits together, thanks to mr. keeble, who is sending me a babbitt scraper in the mail.


using the poitras as a temporary bench for cleaning and painting. i'm getting anxious to start woodworking, but i'm a ways off. i want to get new windows and giprock the walls and paint and fix the water problem and wire it and get lights and ...



10 comments:

mckenzie said...

We have the same jointer! But yours is more complete. Wow down those stairs with a 4800, eeekk, i would have been a basket case.

How big is your basement shop?

jbreau said...

the basement is L shaped. one side is 25'' long and the other is 19'' ish. the L is about ten feet wide, and about 6.5'' tall. 450 square feet about. cozy. the jointer and bandsaw were easy, the lathe was a ass to bring down. i'm going to have to carefully measure projects, to make sure that i can get them out of there. that or build in components.

what parts are you missing from your jointer?

mckenzie said...

i'm missing the ships wheel, og dust door, belt guard, and the pork chop. Not sure what happened to my machine in its past life. But it came to me with freshly ground tables that are minty flat. Which apparently is difficult process to do properly.

I'm thinking of making a real ships wheel for my jointer when i have a free weekend. What diameter is your wheel?

Anonymous said...

You're a busy man my friend, looks good. Did you win some bessy clamps from FWW for that shop of yours?

jbreau said...

the wheel is 14'' across. are you missing the big dust door? is that why your cabinet base is backwards? you could post on owwm to see if someone would have a big wheel. i don't imagine there are many 4800 that are being busted up for parts, but you may find something else. a real one would be pretty cool though.

no i did not win the bessey clamps, some other extravagant piece of furniture won the clamps. i didn't even make the runner's up... but i did get some of the dubuque clamp company clamps. man, what a deal, even with shipping and exchange. but i must say, i got the money at 95 cents on the dollar. not too bad. i damn near pooped myself though, one box took about two weeks longer then the others. say hello to your family from claire and i.

Nick Brygidyr said...

arent those FWW contests to US residents only?

where'd you get all these old iron juicy tools man? im jealous.

i hope to see you start making some dust again soon!

jbreau said...

i got them here and there. the drill press came from gibsons, the table saw came from detroit, the bandsaw came from upstate new york, and the jointer came from northern new brunswick.

maybe the fww contest are just for americans, that's why i didn't win. it all makes sense now.

Nick Brygidyr said...

i think they gravitate more towards waterfall cabinets too, with pussy willow legs.

hows the shipping on getting a machine from the states? i see a cast iron frame bandsaw in my future..

jbreau said...

my mommy and daddy got it for me... how lame does that make me look? i've never shipped anything from anywhere. i usually send someone, or pick it up myself.

there would be tons of stuff pretty close to you in the states. check owwm.org on the boyd section (you may have to log in, but it's worth it)

mckenzie said...

Yeah my 4800 has no dust door. I tried owwm awhile ago, no luck.

I currently have an 6" hand wheel to raise and lower the front jointer table. It makes me feel inadequate.